Barack Obama: The Single Biggest Destroyer of Jobs in US History

RUSH: There weren't any jobs. What is there to say? In fact, I'll tell you, I don't know how they're gonna revise this number down. They revise the number down every month, right? How are they gonna revise zero down? Well, yeah, there had to be a net loss of jobs.

Now, actually, there was a guy hired in August. And all of the networks had planned live interviews with the guy who got the job in August, but he got laid off on August 31st, so there was no job created. There was one guy who got a gig somewhere, I don't know where and I don't know what the job was, but the networks were all excited. They were gonna interview this guy as part of the Labor Day weekend, but he got laid off less than two weeks after he was hired. (laughing) It's no laughing matter, I know. It really isn't. It's a disaster out there. Yeah, we need a jobs program after almost three years of Obama jobs programs.

You see the latest CNN/ORC poll? Supposedly more than eight in ten Americans think the economy is in another recession, 80%. When's the last time that 80% of Americans agreed on anything? I ask you, and yet 80% of Americans think that we are in another recession. You compare that, for instance, to the so-called consensus on manmade global warming. Now, it's funny, folks, as you well know, when there is a Republican in the White House, if most people think that we're in a recession, and we are, that's all it takes. In fact, we can be in a recession even when most people don't think we're in a recession. CNN is so eager to save Obama's bacon that they point out, even after 80% of the American people think we're in a recession, they're wrong, CNN says.

Now, if it were Bush, and if 80% thought we were in a recession, they'd be right. But in this story, 80% of the people in their poll say they think they're in a recession, CNN then goes on to correct them and to explain that officially a recession's two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Never mind that they and the rest of the media have been saying for years that the recession started back in December 2007, even though there had not been two straight quarters of negative GDP at that point. But all of this talk about slipping back into recession and even the jobs number, zero, I'll tell you, it's geared to next week's big speech. One thing: Smoothing the way for Obama to ask for another round of stimulus spending next week. Just get prepared for it, folks. It's gonna be outrageously big, so much so, the Republicans can never support it, and then that will set up Obama running against Republican obstructionism, even though the Republicans have only been in power the last seven months of the little over two and a half years of the Obama regime.

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The BusinessInsider.com: "While the overall U.S. employment situation is dismal, today's jobs report shows the crisis is much worse for minorities. The unemployment rate for black Americans spiked to a shocking 16.7% in August, up from 15.9% the previous month. It's now the highest it has been during Barack Obama's presidency, up from the previous record of 16.5% in March and April 2010." By the way, this is the first time since 1945 that a jobs rate has been zero.

Now, an old buddy, we like this guy a lot here at the EIB Network, James Pethokoukis, he dabbles at Reuters. Somehow he snuck in there, and he does blog posts and writes columns. He's not a lib, let's put it that way. We didn't create a single job, and the unemployment rate dropped nevertheless, right, went from 9.2 to 9.1. Pethokoukis points out that the unemployment rate, if the labor force was as big as it was when Obama took office, would be 11.4%. The way they get this down to 9.1% is simply reduce the number of jobs in the universe, just arbitrarily.

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RUSH: Now, to make the point that I was making here prior to the break at the bottom of the hour, if the labor force was as big today as it was when Obama was immaculated, the unemployment rate would be 11.4% today, as opposed to 9.1, if the labor force were as big. Now, naturally with unemployment being what it is the labor force is gonna be smaller. However, the truth here is that the administration has just arbitrarily reduced the size of the job universe. They have just said, well, you know, there are fewer jobs to be had out there, for whatever reason. I don't care how you analyze it or look at it, this is unacceptable, to have the labor force shrink this much after being promised an unemployment rate of 8%, after being promised 500,000 jobs a month, Joe Bite Me promised after all these programs. To me this is unacceptable, it is frustrating.

I saw this unemployment number of zero today, and I started feeling a repeat of the anger I felt last month when the number came out. This is the United States of America and we now know we've got somebody running this country who believes that its greatness is illegitimate, and we gotta pay the price for it. In truth, we have an effective unemployment rate in this country, 20%. Black unemployment, 16.9%. The 9.1% number is government disinformation. And to the people who have been out of work for a year or longer, this is not a recession; this is a depression. I don't care how the government defines it, that's what this is. When one out of every five adults is struggling to survive in the greatest nation on the face of the earth, this is a disgrace.

When we can't produce a single job in the month of August, a GDP of 1%, the ChiComs are growing at 9.5%, the Cubans are outgrowing us, this is unacceptable. This is the greatest nation on the face of the earth. This is a disgrace, and it is a disgrace because none of this is necessary, none of it. Obama and the liberals like to talk about hostages. Let me tell you something. This nation is being held hostage by a small band of ideological radicals who have contempt for the American people and our economic system. Every single policy that pops out of this president's mouth, every single policy that pops out of his mind involves the federal government, federal control, federal spending, federal subsidies, federal this, and federal that.

Well, we are a nation of individuals; we are a nation of entrepreneurs; we are a nation of wealth creators; we are a nation of hard workers. We are not a nation built on dependence, subsidies, bureaucracy, and government. We are not a nation built on diversity. That is not what has made us great. The war on poverty, the war on this, the great society, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security is not what has made us great. The president of the United States, our leader, is creating economic chaos and instability in this country. He is creating it, and he has unleashed all of his federal departments and agencies against the middle class. Although, "White House Shelves Smog Rule in Huge Defeat for Green Groups -- The White House announced Friday that it is shelving a major planned Environmental Protection Agency regulation that would have tightened smog standards, dealing a huge blow to environmentalists that had pushed the Obama administration to resist industry pressure to abandon the regulation."

The regulation would have ended up costing the country close to a trillion dollars. And you watch. The radicals on the left are now gonna get all bent outta shape and they're gonna start calling him a weak president. They already are, bucking to me, bucking to Boehner, and now bucking to pressure from the Republicans on this EPA regulation. But despite all that, he continues, unabated, unleashing federal departments, agencies against the middle class, against small businesses, businesses of all sizes.

He takes money from some people and some industries, redistributes that money to those who do not create, who do not work, and have not earned it, because he believes they are the ones who have been screwed. We're not talking about a safety net here. It used to be that you talk about a hammock, but we're not even talking about a hammock anymore. A safety net does not cost $4 trillion. A hammock does not cost $4 trillion. We are talking about a president who's using his power, abusing his power, frankly, in the most destructive ways imaginable.

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RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the only thing standing in the way of economic recovery, economic opportunity, job growth, wealth creation, the only thing standing in the way is Barack Obama himself, and more and more Americans now see this. More and more Americans now realize this. He can talk all he wants about balance. But where's the balance in anything he's done? He can talk all he wants about people hating Washington. Well, who is it that's expanding the powers in Washington and turning those powers against the people? He is. It makes perfect sense that people are angry at Washington. Washington, Obama, is standing in everybody's way. He can talk about Republicans blocking his wonderful new plans for creating jobs, which is what his entire campaign's gonna be based on, by the way, Republicans standing in his way for three years, except they've only been in power for seven months.

Yet a question: Is Barack Obama himself not the greatest destroyer of private sector jobs in modern American history? It's a rhetorical question. Barack Obama single-handedly is the greatest destroyer of private sector jobs in modern American history. This man has an ideology and a record that is the antithesis of what has made this nation great. Barack Obama is who is turning this nation into a second rate nation, a nation where we can't send a shuttle to the international space station because he has grounded them. We cannot fight a two-front war against two major powers because Obama is slashing national security budgets. But more outrageous than even those two, we're a nation that cannot even be self-sufficient in our energy needs because he is blocking exploration and pipelines and drillings right here at home. He is opposing new methods for extracting oil from shale.

Barack Obama is a one-man wrecking crew and obstacle. He has taken the greatest health care system on the face of the earth, he has nationalized it, and he is slowly killing it. And how many jobs could be created by simply shelving Obamacare? How many jobs, how much business rebounding would there be if he just shelves it? I know he won't. I'm just illustrating here. He's taken the strongest currency, the US dollar, was the basis for the world's currencies, he's destroyed that. We have 20% unemployment in this country. The housing market is as bad as it was since the Great Depression. We have a massive and growing deficit like the world has never seen and federal government that is imposing its power on every aspect of our lives, and Obama complains that he needs more power and more of our money and more time to make things right.

He says but for the House Republicans who have been in control for what, now, eight months, I guess, the country would be doing just fine. Obama thinks he is such a gifted propagandist, such a gifted demagogue, that you're gonna be persuaded by his antics and games and speeches rather than seeing and feeling and living what is going on all around you. He really thinks that a joint-session speech is gonna remind you and make you think of morning in America again. He really believes he still has this power. It's time to call this man out. It is time to insist that he be held to account politically for the great harm that he has done and is doing to this country, the great hardship that he has unleashed and imposed on so many families in this country. His arrogance, his aloofness are to be condemned. His incompetence is to be condemned. His dismantling of this country, his authoritarianism, his delusion must be condemned.